Louis C.K. Asks TMZ to Take Down Tracy Morgan Crash Footage, and Asks the Rest of Us Not to Watch It

June 12, 2014

Comedian Louis C.K. is asking gossip purveyors TMZ to take down the footage of the aftermath of a fatal collision that killed comedian James McNair and critically injured several other people, including actor and comedian Tracy Morgan. And since it’s unlikely that the site will actually pull the video, he’s also asking the rest of us not to watch it.

It’s been nearly a week since the fatal collision on the New Jersey turnpike; a Wal-Mart tractor trailer driven by Kevin Roper, a driver who reportedly hadn’t slept for more than 24 hours, hit a limousine carrying a group of comedians, including Tracy Morgan, James “Uncle Jimmy Mack” McNair, Ardie Fuqua and Harris Stanton, plus Morgan’s manager Jeffrey Millea. Roper pleaded not guilty on June 11 to charges of vehicular homicide and assault by auto. Morgan sustained a broken leg, femur, nose and several ribs, according to his PR representative, and underwent surgery Wednesday.

Fuqua and Stanton also remain in the ICU, although their reps have yet to issue detailed reports on their conditions. But C.K.’s call for decency was spurred by an Instagram post by Fuqua’s daughter, Krizye Fuqua, who is understandably devastated by seeing footage of the crash that injured her father and killed a family friend.

“I honestly would like to petition for TMZ to remove this video,” she wrote in the post on Tuesday, June 10. “They don’t understand how hurtful it is to see my father dragged out of the wreckage. Along with all the false information on his condition. I understand people want to know and people want to be updated, but enough is enough. This is hurting my heart so bad that this video is posted for all to see. No one should see my father this way.”

Fuqua also asked for privacy for herself and her family: “All I ask it be kindly left alone so that way my father can recover and everyone else can recover in peace. Enough is enough. Please TMZ remove this video.”

The TMZ footage depicts the first moments after the crash, before emergency personnel had arrived on the scene. Given the subject of this post, we won’t pile on by linking to it, but needless to say, it’s graphic, chaotic, and very upsetting.

C.K. reposted Ms. Fuqua’s plea to his Twitter page, along with a few words of his own for TMZ, and for people sharing the video: